Jacky's Girl
by MissMaegan
Summary: When Kathryn crashed on an island with a bunch of Academy boys, she never expected to be so attracted to power-hungry, bad boy Jack. But now rivalry, jealousy, and savagery are taking over, and Kat has her own secrets that she's desperate to keep hidden.
1. Kathryn, Not Kathy

You all know the drill by now…I don't own anything except for my character :)

**Please review at the end! I want to hear your thoughts!**

Kathryn was definitely the center of attention on the plane and she wasn't comfortable with it at all.

The other passengers on the small plane were boys of all different ages, each dressed in crisp dress pants, a white cotton shirt, and a stiff black blazer with an emblazoned crest of one private school or another. And it wasn't lost on these boys, most of whom hadn't seen a female in a few years (minus the burly lunch woman at the Academy), that there was a very beautiful girl that had just boarded their plane.

Kathryn clutched her handbag tightly to her body, wishing she had been booked on another flight. But this one had been cheap, and considering how angry Mother and Father were, it made sense that they'd choose the cheapest flight to send her away in disgrace on.

"Miss, there's an empty seat here!" A boy called out, and Kathryn winced. She'd seen the seat already, but had been desperately combing the aisles for an isolated one rather than be sandwiched between all these boys – of which the oldest ones were looking at her almost…hungrily.

"Miss, please take a seat." the stuartess instructed, a fake smile plastered over her face. Obviously Kathryn would find no pity from the only other woman on board.

Slightly frowning, Kathryn slid herself daintily into the empty seat, giving the boy who had informed her of the spot a small smile. He returned it, and Kathryn almost felt her breath hitch in her chest. He was gorgeous.

_Stop it, _Kathryn chastised herself. _It's because of good-looking bastards like this that you're here in the first place._

"What's your name, beautiful?" the boy asked, leaning forward intimately to talk to her. His English accent was smooth and musical.

Kathryn backed up until she was pressed uncomfortably against the back of the seat. "Kathryn." she whispered, averting her eyes from his almost black ones.

"Can I call you Kathy?"

Kathryn hated that nickname, but to avoid any further conversation, she nodded and turned her head to the side.

_All you have to do is survive this plane ride. You'll be in London in seven hours…seven hours isn't really that long. You can do it._

"Good. So Kathy, why are you flying to England?" He asked, running a hand through his dark brown hair that glinted auburn in the overhead light.

"Why are _you_?" Kathryn snapped back. _Maybe_, she figured_, if I'm as rude as possible he'll just leave me alone._

"We're from there –"

"Obviously." Kathryn interrupted. The boy raised his eyebrows questioningly but chose not to acknowledge her comment.

"We went over to America during the war when the bombs started dropping on England, but now that things have cooled down back home, our headmaster thinks it's okay to return."

"Well that's good then."

"So now it's your turn." he prodded.

Kathryn rubbed her temple with one hand lightly. "I…uh, my parents just want me to go to some finishing school in London." she said quickly, unable to hide her scramble for a vague cover story.

The boy nodded, not looking satisfied, but willing to drop the matter, leaning back again in his seat. Underneath them, the plane began to roll forward.

Kathryn gritted her teeth at the movement and grasped the arm rests with her hands, her knuckles turning white with pressure.

"Don't like to fly?"

Kathryn shook her head, the blonde waves in her hair bouncing around her face. "It's my first time."

"It's not that bad after the first few minutes. It's actually kind of fun. And you'll never forget your first time."

Kathryn peeked open an emerald-colored eye and saw the boy giving her a devilish smirk along with his racy innuendo. She reached over and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "You are a foul boy!"

He laughed, showing a row of sparkling white, even teeth. Kathryn almost forgave him for being so handsome, but at that moment the plane slanted up into the air, and the wave of nausea that hit her only reinforced her idea that she wanted nothing more to do with good-looking boys.

"Oh, dear sweet Lord…" Kathryn whispered under her breath, hoping that she'd get down from this flying deathtrap as soon as possible.

_The Lord doesn't care about sinners like you. _Kathryn shook her mother's stern voice out of her mind. How long would it be before she wasn't haunted by that disappointed tone?

On her other side, another boy woke up as the plane pitched into motion. He'd previously been sleeping, and his eyes widened with shock when he saw the pretty girl delicately sitting next to him.

"H-hi there." he stammered. He took his glasses off his pudgy face and polished them on his cotton shirt.

"Hi." Kathryn said sweetly, not taking the chubby, socially awkward boy as a threat.

"M-my name's –"

"His name's _Piggy_." A younger boy cut in from behind them. He laughed and pushed his nose up like a pig's snout. "Oink!"

"That's not my n-name. My name is –"

_"Oink! Oink!" _

The boy lowered his head disgracefully. Kathryn almost sniggered at his misfortune…growing up with only brothers had given her an admiration for teases and insults, and gifted her with a tongue that wasn't shy to deliver the same.

"Some lads are just born unlucky." the boy whispered from her left, motioning towards poor Piggy. He turned back to talk to the boy on his other side, a broad teenager with jet black hair. From their whispers and occasional glimpses in her direction, Kathryn figured she was the subject of their conversation.

Kathryn smiled and leaned back in her seat, well aware of the looks she was receiving from all angles. It seemed that even the boys that were too young to supposed to care were nonetheless enthralled by her dress, a pretty white with red-polka-dot frock that nipped in at her teensy waist, hung a few centimeters lower than was proper at her neckline, and a hem that rose a little farther than it really should have when she sat down.

_It's not your _dress _they're looking at, silly,_ she chastised herself. Self-consciously she tugged at the fabric, covering up more skin. What she wanted was a blanket, but unfortunately this wasn't a night-flight, and blankets weren't provided.

Eventually she'd drifted off into a nap.

She woke up to a steep drop.

"What the hell?" she mumbled, as she came back to consciousness. Her stomach felt like it had been dropped several stories.

"Morning Princess." she heard a familiar voice say jokingly, and she instantly realized she was lying up against the boy next to her. "I have to admit your language is appalling for a lady."

Kathryn sprung back upright, rigid with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry." she apologized, feeling her cheeks flush.

The boy grinned again at her visible discomfort, a dimple appearing in his cheek. "No need to apologize, I rather liked it." He tossed a look at his dark-haired friend. "In fact," he continued, goaded on by his friend's silent encouragement, "if you wanted to lay back down that'd be fine. Hell, I'd even let you lay full on my lap." He patted his lap good-naturedly.

Kathryn curled her lip in disgust, finding no humor in his words now. "What's going on?" she asked tightly, changing the subject, as the plane dipped lower and jeered off towards the right and then the left.

"Just turbulence." he answered dismissively, pulling at an auburn lock. It was obvious on his face that he was trying to figure out where he'd overstepped the line to insult her so. Kathryn swept her gaze across the plane, and realized that the other boys didn't seem bothered by the rickety motion at all.

_You're overreacting, _she scolded herself. But no amount of thoughts could quell the worry in her stomach. Her eyes sought for the stuartess, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Turbulence is common on all flights." Piggy added, leaning into the conversation despite the annoyed look on Kathryn's face. "You see," he continued, pushing his glasses farther back on his face, "it's caused by the chaotic, random motion of air from changing air currents—"

"Hey, do me a favor." Kathryn interrupted, gritting her white teeth as the plane dropped downward again.

"What?"

"Shut up." Hoots and hollers and teasing noises exploded from the boys around them, all witnesses to her snappy retort.

"Damn." the boy next to her hissed, his eyes a little wider now. "She's got an attitude, doesn't she?"

Kathryn's fingers gripped the armrest hard, and she whipped around to give the cocky handsome boy a piece of her mind, but saw in his almost black eyes that he was only fooling with her. She relaxed a little, exhaling.

"You better watch out there, she might beat you up." His friend, the one with greasy, black hair hanging in his eyes, commented dryly. His voice was rough and gravelly, and it almost sent chills down Kathryn's back, although she couldn't explain why.

"Oh, piss off, Roger." the boy retorted back, punching his friend in the shoulder. "She knows my face is too pretty to hurt. She wouldn't dare."

"That's it, you know what?" Kathryn hissed, trying not to lose the contents of her stomach as the plane rolled with the turbulence.

'What?" the boy challenged her. The way that his dark, rusty-red hair stuck up at odd angles and his dark eyes glinted made him look almost impish. Although, Kathryn had to admit, it was a very attractive sort of impishness.

_God, I need off this plane._

"You are the most –"

**CRACK!**

The insult she'd been about to fire back died on her red-painted lips. The crack echoed around the cabin, louder than a gunshot, and her heart seized up in her chest.

"The wing!" A scream sounded out from the back of the plane. A little boy had his faced pressed against the window, staring outside with tears running down his little face. "The wing is gone!"

Kathryn's mouth dropped open.

_This can't be happening. What do I do?_

The plane jeered off to the left, much, much more violently now. The younger boys screamed, and although her own fear wanted her to do the same, Kathryn couldn't get the noise to leave her throat.

"Take your seatbelt off!" the boy next to her hissed, clawing at his belt. When she didn't move, petrified with fear, he took matters into his own hands and grabbed her buckle himself. She was shaking too badly to care that his hands were far too deep into her lap, and only felt the rush of relief when it sprung open, releasing her.

"Where's the stuartess?" she managed to call out. All she could see were boys, all dressed in their identical uniforms.

He shrugged, concentrating more on undoing the seat belts of the little boys behind them then to actually scan the aisles.

"Germans!" Piggy hissed next to her, looking out of the window by him. Sure enough, Kathryn glimpsed the rear of a fighter plane disappearing into the clouds.

"They shoot and then run away." Roger huffed, as he followed his friend's example by unbuckling the children. "Typical Germans."

"But Germans aren't shooting down civilian planes anymore!" Kathryn protested dully, not wanting this to be true.

"How about you try telling them that, Kathy." the boy shot back, lifting a young boy with a mulberry colored splotch on his face over the seats.

"Hey, over here!" A voice called, and Kathryn turned to see a blonde boy, apparently one of the oldest, straining against the wheel on the door of the emergency exit. With a grunt and a final shove it gave way, and he easily swung the door open.

On the other side, gray clouds whipped by as the plane began plummeting. Freezing winds from the high altitude whipped throughout the cabin, and Kathryn hugged herself with her arms as tendrils of her golden hair stung her face.

"We have to jump!" the blonde yelled into the cabin. "Or else this plane will go down and we'll all drown with it!"

Kathryn's heart hammered in her chest. The world was in slow motion. The plane falling, the blonde boy yelling, the little boys crying…it all slowed down to a terrifying pace for a few seconds.

"Kathy! You heard him! We have to get these kids out of here!" the boy called, snapping her out of her trance. He shoved a little boy of about seven years old into her arms, picked up another boy himself, and joined the blonde boy by the open door. Kathryn timidly followed, scared to be sucked out by the wild winds along with the child in her arms.

"What? We just…" She was aware of the little boy's face buried in the crook of her neck so chose to mouth the next part "…_throw them out?_"

"We have to." the blonde boy said, and she could see that the decision as killing him inside too. "If we don't they'll definitely die. At least this way they'll have a chance."

"You can't expect a child to survive that fall! They'll drown!" Kathryn whispered, loudly enough to be heard over the childrens' cries and the fierce winds.

"All Academy boys know how to swim." the boy she'd sat next to argued.

"There's a blow-up raft down there too." the blonde added. "I just threw it out. If we get them out now they'll be close enough to swim to it and hold on."

"But…but…" Kathryn faltered.

"For God's sake, Kathy! No one is coming to save us right now!" the rusty-haired boy hissed. He stepped forward and tossed the boy he was holding out the emergency exit.

Kathryn looked away as the boy's screams disappeared as he fell. Before she could react, the child in her own arms was ripped away and tossed out.

"Go get more kids!" Roger ordered, and Kathryn nodded dumbly. The children had already crowded around the opening, well aware that it was the way out of the doomed plane. Most jumped of their own free will, but a few had to be coaxed or tossed.

"Is that all the kids?" the blonde asked, looking around the cabin.

"Yeah." Kathryn answered, breathing heavily.

The blonde nodded. "Good. I'll see you down there then." He gave Kathryn a sly wink before jumping backwards out of the plane.

"Cocky bastard." The rusty-haired boy cursed. He motioned for Roger to jump, and after his friend had done so, turned to Kathryn.

"What about the pilot?" she asked worriedly.

"Dammit." the boy cursed. "Forgot about him." He ran to the cockpit and tried to open the door. "It's locked!" he called back, joining her by the exit. "We have to go, we don't have time to get him out of there."

Kathryn nodded, looking over the edge to the waves below. The plane continued to sway with the wind, its lost wing causing it to buck and tumble with every air current.

"Can you swim?"

Kathryn almost laughed. "I'm from Louisiana." she answered. "Trust me, I can swim." She looked down again. "But I can't do this. I can't jump." Panic rose up in the back of her throat.

"Hey, hey, Kathy, look at me, gorgeous." the boy instructed, cupping her face in his hand.

_What the hell is he doing? The plane is going down!_

"I need you to calm down." he said slowly. "Okay?"

Kathryn nodded, but it was hard to be calm when his cool, smooth hand was basically caressing her face.

Bewildered, Kathryn's eyes went wide as his arm wrapped around her waist. She hadn't allowed a man to hold her like this since…

_Stop it,_ she instructed herself.

The boy leaned in closer, and her heart quickened to a dangerously fast pace. He closed his enchanting, dark eyes and…

..jumped.

"Is she okay?" The voice of a young British boy reached Kathryn's ears as she came back to consciousness.

"I think so." a familiar deep, smooth voice followed.

Groaning, Kathryn blinked open her jewel-green eyes to the group of boys clustered around her. "Where am I?" she rasped, her throat raw. The sun glared down ferociously and she felt the sensation of rough sand scraping the back of her arms and legs.

"On an island." the rusty-haired boy answered, smoothing down her hair. Kathryn realized she didn't have a clue what his name was. "Pretty bloody lucky, isn't it?"

Kathryn smiled.

_ I can't believe I survived._

"Thank you, God." she said dutifully, looking upwards into the too-blue sky.

"You know what I find amazing?" the boy asked, his eyes glinting playfully.

"What?" she croaked. Was it the salt water that was causing her throat to burn so badly?

"That you managed to not smear your lipstick through all that." he joked. "Now that is talent."

"You're ridiculous." Kathryn sighed, fighting to keep the smile off her lips. She slowly sat up, her head a little light.

"Here, try to _stand _up." he instructed, rising to his own feet and dusting the sand off his clothes. They were ret and rumpled, but she had to admit it did nothing to detract from his appearance. He had thrown off his jacket in the heat somewhere, and his damp white shirt clung to his athletic, muscular frame. He reached down and grasped her hands, pulling her to her feet easily.

"Are you gon' be okay now?" one of the little boys asked, tugging innocently on the skirt of her dress. Kathryn smiled, finding his Cockney accent just adorable.

"Yeah, I am –"

That's when the wave of nausea hit her. She clamped a hand over her mouth as she swayed. The little boy leapt backwards as she fell to her knees.

"Whoa, Kathy!" the rusty-haired boy exclaimed, dropping down to her. "What's wrong?"

Kathryn answered his question by releasing her lunch into the sand.

"_Eww!"_ the little boys shrieked, running away.

Kathryn's cheeks flamed scarlet with embarrassment. "This…is so…humiliating." she groaned as the tremors left her body. She dry heaved over the sand, vaguely aware of the boy's hands tracing patterns on her back to comfort her.

"It's fine. We've all done it before." he laughed lightly. "Are you ill?"

"No…" Kathryn said, breathing heavily. "It must have just been the shock or something. Maybe delayed airsickness. I feel better now, though."

"Well, do you want to rinse your mouth out?" She heard true concern in his deep voice.

"Yeah." Kathryn agreed, crawling closer to the surf. She dipped her hands in the water and splashed her face. Then she cupped her hands, filled her palms with the briny water, and swished the salty liquid throughout her mouth, removing all traces of her earlier sickness.

"Good?" he asked. Kathryn nodded.

"Well than Kathy, let's go join the others. Blondie boy is attempting to take control here…he's got some system planned with a ridiculous _shell_ or something. But we might as well go join them so we know what's going on." He once again pulled Kathryn to her feet, and after making sure she wouldn't collapse again, started walking towards the group of boys on the other end of the shore.

"Hey, wait!" Kathryn called, wiping her wet hands off on her dress and jogging a few steps to catch up with him.

"Hmm?"

"I-I have a confession to make." Kathryn said sheepishly. "I hate the name Kathy."

The boy laughed, a deep, rich sound. "Good, so do I." he admitted when his laughter died down. "What do you go by then?"

Kathryn shrugged. "Just Kathryn…or Kat. Occasionally Kitty."

"_Kitty_?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well, that was only by my parents." Kathryn smiled, remembering how her father used to call her Kitty and spin her around the room to sit on his lap. But that had been so long ago, before she'd grown up, before…

_I thought you weren't going to think about that anymore_.

"Well, _Kathryn_…let's head on over to the others then."

Kathryn smiled and nodded. "Okay." She walked beside him, admiring the way that the sun reflected off the auburn strands in his messy, dark brown hair. Surely it was the strangest hair she'd ever seen…like molten copper had been poured over black hair, dark and shiny and bright all at the same time.

"Oh!" she said again, as another thought hit her. She stopped walking and tugged gently on his shirt to get his attention. "All this talk about my name," she started, "but I realize that I never got yours."

He smirked happily. "I thought you'd never ask." he said, his dark eyes glimmering. "It's Jack."

**AUTHOR'S NOTE (PLEASE READ) – **Thanks for reading this fanfic so much! I put out a long first chapter to kick things off, but be warned, my other chappies won't be this long. _But_ I hate tiny chapters, so they won't be short either :) Now that you've read, you might have some questions, so I'll cover a few points.

-Pretty much the same time period, but Ralph, Jack, Simon, Piggy, and Kathryn are all seventeen. Or around that age. I might tweak the ages later, but right now they're all around 17.

-I know what you're thinking. "_Why is Jack being nice? Isn't he a savage? According to every other fanfic he should want to rape her by now!"_ Well the way I figure it, is that in a real life situation, someone would need to develop into a savage monster, they wouldn't just be one over a few power struggles. So yeah, there's a lot of character development in store for Jacky boy :)

-I'm not a slash fan…like at all. So even if I decided to put in a gay relationship, I won't go in depth on any intimate parts since I'm pretty sure I'd suck at writing those anyway.

-I'm not a lemon writer, but I definitely deal with mature themes, so you've been warned. It might not be explicit, but there will be some sexual themes and situations…but y'all wouldn't be here if you didn't want some of that, and you know it ;)

Thanks for reading, and please **REVIEW!** I swear, those are the only things that keep me motivated to write!

**-I love, love, love critiques since it improves me as a writer, but please don't flame. (a nice pro/con list would be good :p) -**


	2. Ridiculous

New chapter up, and it's pretty long! Yay!

Thanks to my reviewers, your pro/con lists really helped out, and I'm working to improve based upon those reviews.

This chapter isn't that great in my eyes, but the whole "introduction and chief election" had to be done, so voila.

I tried to really give Jack some layers and develop the characters a little, so **REVIEW** and let me know how I did!

Once again, I own nothing except my character.

Enjoy and Review! ( please :p )

**xxxxx**

"Look who finally decided to show up." the blonde boy commented dryly, as Jack and Kathryn trudged barefoot through the damp sand to join the others. He was standing up in front of all the younger boys, many of which were crying and blubbering, while Piggy aimlessly puttered around, trying to get a headcount.

"Piss off." Jack snapped sharply. "She got sick."

The blonde's face softened slightly as he scanned Kathryn with a curious glance. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Kathryn said shortly, placing her hands on her hips. She didn't know what to make of this one. While she greatly admired his efforts to save the children, she wasn't fond of his attitude.

"Good. We're about to introduce ourselves. So we can see who's the oldest." He looked down at Piggy. "Well, how many are there?"

"I-I can't tell!" he whimpered. "They're so small…and noisy…and they won't quit _moving!_"

Kathryn heard the intake of a laugh from Jack and she gave him a firm nudge with her elbow. While the chubby boy was certainly an entertaining sight to see, she felt a little bad for him.

"It doesn't matter, we'll count them later." the blonde decided, climbing nimbly onto a small, seaweed-covered boulder to elevate himself above the crowd of boys. He stood tall and proud, and his beach blonde hair contrasted sharply with deep blue eyes that seemed to be the same shade as the ocean behind him.

_What do they feed these Academy boys?_ Kathryn thought wondrously. Even Jack's greasy-haired friend had attractive features in his strong jaw…only Piggy was the real exception, she figured.

"Well then, boys" he declared, "My name's Ralph. I'm seventeen. "

"…and I like long walks on the beach…" Jack singsonged under his breath. Beside him, Kathryn bit her lip to stop from laughing out loud.

"Now it's your turn," Ralph prompted, looking directly at Kathryn. He motioned her forward, shoving an oversized shell into her hands. "You need the conch to speak." he informed her. "It's a rule."

"What? I don't want—" Kathryn sputtered.

"Please, they're _little boys_. I promise they aren't as scary as they seem." Ralph laughed, but it sounded fake and a little insulting to her ears.

"Hi, my name's—"she began reluctantly.

"No, get up on the rock, so they can see you." Ralph corrected.

Kathryn frowned in annoyance, but climbed on top of the slippery rock cautiously anyway to avoid an argument. Once she had her balance, she continued "My name's Kathryn." she said to the little boys, offering a tiny, girlish wave. "I'm seventeen too." she added, after a sharp look from Ralph.

Jack stepped forward and offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly, and allowed herself to be lowered gently from the rock.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Jack answered, swiftly stepping up onto the boulder to face the crowd. He reached down as Kathryn handed him the pearl colored conch. "I'm Jack. Seventeen." He tossed a lazy look at Ralph. "Almost eighteen."

Ralph ignored his comment, and motioned for Piggy to go next. Piggy tried in vain to climb on top of the rock, but his legs were a little too short, his body a little too large, and the seaweed a little too slippery for him to accomplish the task.

"Say it from the ground; they can see you just fine." Jack said in frustration after witnessing Piggy's fifth attempt.

"Well, my name's—"

"Piggy! You're name's _Piggy_!" A boy called out, presumably the same one from the plane.

"No!" Piggy whined. "My name's –"

"Oink! Oink! Oinkety-oink-oink!" the boys chanted meanly. Piggy's face blushed deep red and the conch fell out of his pudgy hands.

"But…"

_ 'OINK!"_

Piggy dropped his head again sadly and trudged over to a soft pile of sand, where he collapsed into a sitting position in defeat.

"Well then…" Ralph trailed, looking sympathetically at his fat friend. "Who's next?"

"My name's Roger." Roger announced, now up on the rock. He pushed some of his long, scraggly black hair out of his eyes. "Seventeen." His voice was low and gravelly, and Kathryn once again felt chills go up her spine.

_You're being ridiculous. You can't judge someone like that because they have a deep voice and messy hair, _she scolded herself.

Next a thin, lanky boy with sandy hair and mossy green eyes pulled himself up onto the boulder. "I'm Simon," he said shyly, looking down at his feet as if embarrassed. "Fifteen."

"I'm Sam—"

"—I'm Eric,"

"—and we're sixteen." Two twins said simultaneously. They were identical in every visible way, and Kathryn knew they'd be difficult, if not impossible, to tell apart.

Then the little boys stood up, each hollering out their name and age with lungs that only young British boys posses.

"Percival! Six!"

"Henry! Six!"

"Johnny! Seven!"

"Avery! Five!"

Kathryn knew there was no way she'd remember all these names, so she patiently waited with the others until the last boy had announced his identity. Ralph lifted himself back onto the boulder.

"Now that we're done with introducing ourselves, I want to talk to you boys." he announced, running a hand through his blonde hair.

"Oh great." Jack groaned.

"We may be out here alone without any adults, but we will, we must, look after ourselves!" Ralph announced, spreading his arms. "After all, we are still English gentlemen, and we are Military Academy boys, so if there's any group of people more apt to survive here, it's us!"

The little boys who had previously been sobbing wiped their noses and peered upwards at the golden-haired boy that was speaking so fluidly to them. The older boys clapped, filled with a sense of patriotic and school pride.

Only Kathryn, Jack, and Roger remained silent. Kathryn, mainly, because as an American, she had no national pride for England. Jack was quiet out of his initial dislike of Ralph, and Roger was following suit with Jack.

"Now we need to try and get rescued," Ralph continued. "So we need a plan to go about that. Something that someone will see from the air, in case a pilot flies overhead – something bright, or big, or—"

"I think we should focus on food." Jack interrupted, stepping forward from the side of the crowd to face Ralph.

"Pardon?" Ralph's eyebrows rose as though he couldn't believe someone was talking back to him.

"You heard me. We can focus on making signals all you want, but these kids need food." Jack said simply.

"It's more important that we start building signal fires," Ralph shot back. "If we don't, we might as well just accept that we're stuck here. And I'll remind you that you don't have the conch, so you can't speak."

"I don't give a bleedin' damn about the conch shell, and if these boys pass out while lugging around firewood because they're so hungry, you won't get much of _anything_ done." Jack retorted sourly.

Ralph dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

"Why that little bastard—"Jack hissed, lurching forward towards the blonde boy.

Kathryn laid a gentle hand on Jack's shoulder that was firm enough to restrain him. "_Don't._" she whispered, shaking her head slightly. Inside she was quaking, her nerves shot from this whole affair. She was terrified and homesick, and the last thing she needed was for a fight to break out here.

"I think it's for reasons like these that we should have a chief." Ralph continued, facing the boys with a pearly smile. He was like a career politician, putting out the friendliest image possible. "Someone to decide things around here."

Jack's mouth formed a tight line. "And I bet you think you're just the _perfect_ person to be chief, don't you?" he questioned sarcastically.

Ralph nodded. "Why not? I believe I'm a good choice." he said simply. "I'm a natural leader, a strategic thinker, not to mention I basically saved every single one of these boys on that plane by opening the exit."

Jack gritted his teeth, and Kathryn contemplated gently restraining him again.

"Well, maybe _I_ think _I'm_ a good choice for 'chief'." Jack said venomously. "In fact, maybe Roger wants to be chief, or Kathryn? Maybe even Piggy?"

Kathryn shook her head violently at the suggestion, wanting no part of holding other's lives in her hands. Piggy, meanwhile, turned a deeper shade of red.

"You don't have anything to back up your claim to be a good chief." Ralph sneered.

"Really?" Jack asked. "Because I think I do. I'm a natural leader as well – in fact, I'm the captain of the Academy Rugby Team—"

"The rugby team does do very well…" Piggy piped up, before being silenced by a glare from Ralph.

"—not to mention I'm just as smart as you, defiantly stronger, older, taller…" Jack wrinkled his nose as he quickly scanned Ralph, "…much better looking." he added. "And if you want to get into particulars about that plane, _you _might have opened the door, but_ I_ unbuckled most of those kids and lifted them over the seats…so don't act as though you're such a mighty hero."

Ralph's hands curled into fists, and he stepped forward, until he was very close to Jack. His jaw set firmly, Ralph spoke so low that Kathryn had to strain to hear what was said. "I know you're used to getting your way whenever you want," he said quietly, as though speaking to a bratty child. "Just because your Father's rich and powerful, but being a Merridew won't magically make you chief way out here on this island."

Kathryn predicted it before it happened. Jack's fist flew up out of nowhere, fueled by the rusty-haired boy's anger and humiliation, and aimed straight for Ralph's jaw. Ralph managed to dodge the blow, but the force of his sideswipe caused him to stumble backwards onto the sand.

"Stop it! Don't!" Kathryn called out, as Jack towered over the blonde boy, his dark eyes seething. Ralph lay on the sand warily, watching the older boy's every move.

"Easy," Simon said quietly, stepping forward and laying a light hand on Jack's shoulder. It was the first time she'd heard him speak, besides when he'd introduced himself earlier. Jack whipped around to yell at Simon, but stopped when the younger boy's green eyes shot him a warning. The younger boys were staring, wide-eyed, having never seen a fight under the strict rules of the Academy.

Jack stepped back from Ralph, throwing off Simon's hand moodily and returning to his original place by Kathryn. She gave him a small, supportive smile, but he just shook his head and turned away.

"How about a vote?" Roger asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Yes, a vote." Ralph agreed, standing up and brushing powdery sand off his uniform. "Then we'll see if the rest of these boys want a vicious brute like Jack as chief."

Jack shook his head in disappointed disbelief.

"Pick up those shells over there," Piggy declared, pointing at a stretch of white shells that lay scattered across the beach, left over by the tides. "Then," he added, using his foot to draw two rectangles in the sand, "put your shell in this rectangle _here_ if you vote for Jack, and in _here_ if you vote for Ralph." He drew out a sloppy R and J over the boxes to label them.

The little boys raced over to the shells, each grasping a gleaming white shard, and stood over the rectangles, contemplating with all the focus six-year-olds can muster, taking a final look at the faces of the few boys, and then finally casting their shells into the appropriate boxes.

It was easy to see who had won. Ralph's box was piled high with shells, a mountain of long dead shellfish, formed from the boys who trusted his fair features, the security that came with the conch, and feared the dark, stormy features and aggressive actions of Jack. Jack's box had only a handful of shells haphazardly tossed inside, barely enough to fill a child's hand.

'Shall we count, then?" Piggy asked innocently, kneeling down to take inventory of the amount of shells in Ralph's box.

Roger grunted, and pushed the fat boy over, smiling and raising a chorus of giggles from the boys. "We know who won already, you git." he spat.

Piggy rolled around on his back before mustering enough momentum to fling himself into sitting position. "That was uncalled for." he pouted, removing his glasses and wiping the sand off the lenses.

"So that's it." Ralph commented dryly. "I guess I'm chief then."

**xxxxxx**

Kathryn joined Jack by the ocean, where he was laid carelessly against the giant rocks, his feet propped up and his shirt unbuttoned a few more buttons. His black blazer was thrown by his side and his dark eyes looked out at the water as if he was lost in deep thought.

_Don't look at his chest, _she instructed herself firmly.

"Can I join you?" she asked hesitantly, becoming visible as she shifted around a large boulder.

Jack looked over at her and gently smiled. "Of course." he said, gesturing her forward with his hand.

Kathryn tried to climb her way up the rocks, but the sharp barnacles and rough surface scratched and bit into the soft skin of her feet. She felt ridiculous after her first attempt, but nonetheless tried again, kneeling over in pain as her feet slid down the rocks. She heard Jack's soft laugh, and gave up. Instead, she walked around the cluster of rocks, and managed to find a much easier path to climb up to Jack's stony perch.

She knelt down on the flat surface below him, causing her to have to look almost straight up to see him on the highest rock. "I'm glad you found that funny." she said sarcastically.

Jack didn't say anything, but removed his boyish smile from his face.

"Are you okay?" Kathryn asked.

Jack shrugged. "A little bit of a bruised ego, but I'll be fine." He looked down at her as the wind ruffled his hair. "Did you expect to find me crying up here?"

Kathryn smiled and shook her head. "No." she admitted. "I just…I mean…" she struggled to find the right words. "I could tell what he said to you really upset you…and I wanted to see if you wanted to talk about it. Now I'm not the best listener, but I'll give it a shot."

Jack leaned backwards farther so that the sun reached his face. "I'm guessing you could tell by the fact that I tried to smash in that bastards face, huh?" he asked dryly.

"Well, that was certainly a hint."

Jack sighed. "I don't mean to be like that." He said after a minute. "Truly I don't. But sometimes I just get so mad…" he shook his head. "It's scary. I can't control it."

"It's alright." Kathryn said soothingly, scurrying up the rock to be a little more level with him. "I'm the same way."

Jack cocked an eyebrow amusedly. "_You _beat people up?"

Kathryn giggled. "No," she corrected, "but I yell things out that I don't really mean when I get mad. I say things that really hurt people and shouldn't ever be said. And I always feel satisfied right then, but once I really realize what I've done I just feel…" she trailed, trying to express herself with the right words.

"Lousy?" Jack supplied.

"_Bitchy_." Kathryn finished.

Jack laughed. "You're something else, Kat." he sighed.

Kathryn blushed a little; thankful he couldn't see it from his position above her. She felt the same way she did when she was thirteen and had a crush on a boy who worked for her father, that killed the alligators in the rivers throughout her father's Louisiana ranch in the summer. That same bubbly feeling was inside of her, but she pushed it down in annoyance.

_You don't even know this boy, not really! _She snapped mentally at herself.

_But I like how he says my name…_the girly-girl inside of her argued.

"Was it what Ralph said about your father that upset you so much?" Kathryn asked after a few silent seconds.

Jack didn't answer for a while, but Kathryn knew he'd heard her.

"Yeah." Jack said eventually. "It was that."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Jack cast a look down at her, and gave a sad smile. "My relationship with my father isn't something I really want to discuss."

"Oh." Kathryn said shortly, realizing she'd overstepped the boundaries.

Jack immediately backtracked. "I mean, I'll probably eventually tell you, but it's something that I need to think about and prepare for. It isn't easy or enjoyable to talk about, and I have to decide when to talk about it." His eyes flashed as he spoke. "Or be extremely drunk." he added.

Kathryn laughed. "Okay, I get it."

_After all, if there's anything I understand, it's family problems._

"So Kat…" Jack said, shifting so he was looking down at her. Kathryn got a good glimpse of his chest from this angle, and struggled to keep another blush down as she registered smooth muscle.

"Yeah?"

"Speaking of being drunk…do you want to explain this to me?" He reached into the pocket of his discarded black blazer, and pulled out a flask.

Kathryn's mouth went a little dry as she caught a glimpse of the familiar silver container. "How did you—" she sputtered, throwing decency to the wind and lifting up her dress to glance at her garter, where the flask should have been tucked away.

Jack smiled appreciatively at her smooth thigh and the thin lacy white strap. Self-consciously, Kathryn replaced her skirt modestly.

"How'd you get that?" she asked incredously.

"After you passed out after jumping out of the plane, I had to drag you to shore, remember?" Jack asked, smirking devilishly. "And let's just say that a wet dress tends to cling to the body, and I saw you had something hard and silver up on your thigh."

"So you reached into my _skirt_?" Kathryn said incredously.

"Well, I was a little worried that it was a gun." Jack said simply. "But don't worry; I didn't go past the garter."

Kathryn's facial expression was shocked and scandalized. "Y-you…" she stammered. "Give it back!" She lunged for the flask, but he kept it conveniently out of her reach.

"Now what I'm really wondering," Jack laughed, taking pleasure in her embarrassment, "is why a young lady like you would need this in a finishing school?"

"Shut up."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." Jack laughed.

"Shut up!" Kathryn repeated, trying not to smile. "It was just to take the edge off the plane flight!"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Jack said sarcastically.

"Just give it back!"

Jack grinned and tossed the small silver flask over to Kathryn. Pink tingeing her cheeks, Kathryn slipped it back into her garter, ignoring the looks from Jack.

"You're ridiculous, Jack Merridew."

**xxxxxxx**

Whaddya think?

A few points I need to cover again:

-Yes, I made Jack the rugby captain instead of head choir boy…I'm sorry, but there was no way to make "head choir boy" sound hot.

-Just assume everyone in this story doesn't grow hair. I don't want my characters to be all mountain man bearded (or have jungle legs in Kathryn's case), but I don't want to come up with some farfetched method for shaving (sharp shells just isn't believable), so we'll just pretend these kids don't grow hair lol

-Finally, the way they worked things out in this chapter is definitely different than the original novel…that's because the way they dealt with things in the novel was childish, mainly because they _were _children at the time, so I'm having things resolved in more adult, hormonal, testosterone-fueled ways.

Thanks for reading, and please **REVIEW!** I swear, those are the only things that keep me motivated to write!

**-I love, love, love critiques since it improves me as a writer, but please don't flame. (a nice pro/con list would be good :p) -**


	3. Good Riddance

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry that I haven't uploaded! But I typed it out and my sister infected our computer with a virus, so I had to retype it. Many apologies. As a gift, I made it a much larger chapter :) Once again, I own nothing except Kat. And as always, I'll have a lengthy Author's note at the end.

**Please review at the end! I want to hear your thoughts!**

"Where have you been?" Piggy whined, flailing his arms as Kathryn and Jack walked up the sandy shoreline towards the other boys. Kathryn smiled to herself. As if they couldn't see the heavyset boy without all that hand waving.

The rest of the boys had moved farther inland, no longer on the powdery sand dunes, but rather clustered near the edge of the thick, lush forest that grew in the middle of the island. The younger boys were still asleep, curled up on the ground in huddles, while the older boys were cross-legged in the dirt, hacking and sawing at what appeared to be large orange fruits.

Kathryn didn't know how she'd managed to fall asleep on those rocks with Jack. She clearly remembered babbling conversationally about how she wished they'd find food soon, and then the next thing she remembered was waking up hours later, curled against a cold, rough rock, with a horrible pain shooting through her back, and her golden hair knotted beyond hope.

"We fell asleep." Jack yawned. Kathryn smiled a little at his disheveled appearance. His own clothes were as wrinkled as hers, and his hair shot up in every possible direction. He held his discarded uniform jacket and tie in one hand.

"We had no clue where you were!" Piggy persisted, now in front of them. He waved a sausage-like finger at the two as if they were young children. "You could have drowned! You could have gotten lost! You could have been eaten by a wild beast!"

"Shut up, Fatty," Jack sneered, a frown furrowing his brow. Kathryn knew by now that he didn't like being scolded or told what to do. "There are no beasts on this island, anyway."

Piggy shrunk backwards slightly at the tone in the older boy's voice. "B-but from now o-on," he stammered, his social awkwardness returning strongly, "t-tell me where you're g-going first."

"That's it, you little—"

"Okay, Piggy, we _understand_." Kathryn snapped over Jack's attempt to insult Piggy any further. She spat the last word warningly at Jack. She felt like they'd made more of a connection after Jack's confession after his near fight with Ralph, but that didn't mean she wanted him attacking any other boys. Especially not soft, round, defenseless Piggy.

Grabbing on to his forearm, Kathryn dragged Jack around the fat boy, who was looking quite proud of himself at the moment now that someone had taken an order from him, and continued up the shoreline to the boys gathered by the edge of the forest.

"Why'd you do that?" Jack asked, pulling his arm away from her grasp. He yawned again, still waking up, and ran a hand through his hair to smooth it a little.

"Not everyone is out to pitch a fight with you, Nosebleed." Kathryn said exasperatedly. She put her hands on her hips. "I mean, couldn't you tell that he just wanted someone to listen to him for once? All you had to do was nod and walk away, but you had to almost _jump_ him."

There was a concentrated look on Jack's face, and Kathryn figured he felt a little guilty now.

"_Nosebleed?" _Jack asked, grinning from ear to ear as Kathryn's face fell with the realization that her words hadn't sunk in.

"It's an American thing." Kathryn sighed, throwing her hands up in the air as a show of exaggerated helplessness.

_Honestly, there's no helping this boy._

"Glad to see you two are still alive." a voice said from behind them, and the two turned to see Ralph standing there, his arms full of the round orange fruits that the other boys were slicing in to. "Where'd you go?"

Kathryn felt Jack go rigid by her side at the sight of the blonde boy, and took the opportunity to answer herself. "Around the shore to a bunch of rocks by the water. We accidentally fell asleep."

Ralph nodded and allowed the fruits to tumble from his arms to the sand in a pile. Kathryn noticed that he'd cut his dress pants off at the knees and removed the sleeves off his white shirt to expose pale but lithe limbs. Casting a quick gaze on the other boys, Kathryn could see that they had followed his example. "Looks like you two had fun." Ralph winked suggestively, making a show of scanning them.

Kathryn's face went scarlet as she caught on to the joke. Her dress was askew and wrinkled and her hair was tousled and matted. Jack, meanwhile, was just as rough-looking, with bed-head hair and a shirt unbuttoned a little too far. "Wha – no!" Kathryn stammered, and Jack flirtingly raised his eyebrows at her.

Ralph laughed. "Relax, I'm just kidding." His blue eyes gleamed with friendliness, and Kathryn caught herself wondering if this was the same boy from the night before whose ego had been so inflated.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, and Kathryn idly traced lines in the sand with her big toe.

"You two hungry?" Ralph asked finally. "We found these trees inside the jungle…only about a few yards in. They have these orange fruits all over them." He gestured to the pile of fruit he'd dropped, from which the other boys had began to pick from.

"How do you know they're not poisonous?" Jack asked shortly.

"I ate the first one last night and I'm fine." Ralph shrugged. "Everyone else has eaten them since then, and there have been no problems. We just drain the sap out of them first, since we don't want to risk anything."

Kathryn pulled a face at the alien fruits, but the growl that tore through her stomach betrayed her hunger.

"Yeah, we'll try them." Jack decided, his tone neutral towards the other boy. His tight jaw made it obvious that he wasn't comfortable with the boy he'd tried to sock in the face earlier, but he was trying to remain civil.

"Go over there and talk to Simon. He'll show you how to cut into them." Ralph instructed, wiping his hands off on his cut shorts. "I've got to go collect more anyway." He gave Kathryn a slight wave, and offered Jack a little nod, before turning on his heel and disappearing into the jungle again.

"He's a strange one." Kathryn whispered. "He was a completely different guy last night."

Jack nodded, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. "Just keep an eye on him." he said finally, walking towards Simon with Kathryn in tow.

"Hi." Simon said shyly. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, splitting open a fruit with a wide parang blade.

Kathryn knelt down to be eye-level with him, and Jack followed her example. "Hi, Simon," Kathryn said sweetly, "Jack said you're the man to talk to about getting something to eat around here?"

Simon smiled and nodded. "Sure." he answered. "Just go get a knife from over there." He pointed to a pile only a few feet away.

Jack's eyes widened at the pile of flat parang blades. "Where the hell did you get all these?" he asked, picking one up and twirling it by its heavy wooden handle.

"They washed up in a case." Simon said. "There were some first-aid supplies too. The name of the airline was printed on the top, so it must have come from the plane."

"It must have crashed farther away." Jack mused to himself. "Do I get to keep this?" He held the knife up and the sun glinted off it brightly.

"Yeah. All the older boys get one." Simon said, making a welcoming gesture with one hand.

Kathryn frowned as Jack proudly brandished his new blade. "What about me?"

Jack and Simon turned to look at her. "What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Do _I _get a knife?"

"Why would you need a knife?" Simon asked.

"W-well," Kathryn stammered, looking for a decent reason. "Well, because everyone else has one!"

Jack laughed. "You wouldn't know what to do with a knife. You'd probably kill yourself." His tone was deadly serious, but his eyes glinted with humor.

"I wouldn't!" Kathryn protested. "And I could use a knife for all sorts of things! To cut wood…or cut these fruits!"

"Women don't need knives." Jack said pompously. His tone suggested that his argument was only to tease.

Kathryn narrowed her green eyes. _A new approach then. _"Jack Merridew, you will give me a damn knife, and you will give me one now."

"I think you should give her a knife." Simon whispered helpfully, a small smile tugging at his lips.

Jack let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "Fine." he trailed dramatically. He handed a knife to Kathryn, who took it delicately in her hands. It felt foreign and startlingly heavy in her palm.

"You gonna put that in your garter too, Kat?" Jack asked, a scandalous smirk decorating his lips.

"What?" Simon asked, cocking his head in confusion.

Kathryn felt her cheeks grow warm. "It's _nothing_." she snapped quickly, averting her gaze to the ground. She heard Jack holding in laughter above her.

"Alright, let's just eat something already!" Kathryn said loudly, after another few silent awkward seconds passed.

Simon nodded obediently, and Jack lowered himself to once again sit next to Kathryn. "You know I was just joking, right?" he whispered in her ear. His breath tickled and she felt tingly with him so close.

_Stop it, you silly girl._

"You know I'm just about to tackle you to the ground, _right_?" she hissed sarcastically.

Simon raised his eyebrows amusedly at their bickering, calmly waiting for it to pass like a patient parent.

"Tackle me and make sweet love to me?" Jack asked cheekily. "Because I would be _completely okay_ with that—"

Kathryn's fist connected squarely on his shoulder and easily shut him up. "Damn that hurt." he winced, rubbing it tenderly. "I'm just trying to joke around with a woman and she gets all touchy."

Kathryn smiled triumphantly at his expression of pain. "I only had brothers." she stated dryly. "Violence is like a second nature." Simon gave her a curious look.

Jack shook his head in mock disappointment. "Whatever, Kathryn," he said. "Can we just eat already before your violent nature kills somebody?"

Simon rolled each of them a fruit, and showed them how to push it into the sand to prevent it from moving around.

"Then slice it down the middle, but you have to go around the pit." Simon explained, doing the same as an example. His thin hands turned the fruit gracefully, severing it in half, revealing the pale orange fruit inside.

Jack struggled with his fruit. "How do you turn it so smoothly like that?" he asked in frustration. His brow furrowed as he concentrated on sliding the knife downwards, but he missed the grace needed to do it cleanly. Juice spurted over his knuckles and the blade slipped through the soft flesh in a choppy manner that barely missed his fingers.

Kathryn took pity on him, after enjoying his helplessness for a few seconds. "Here," she said kindly, reaching over and laying one hand on top of his.

_His hand is so warm! _She inwardly marveled, but pushed it back. "And then," she added, laying her other hand over his other one holding the knife, "you just glide it down." She applied enough pressure and pushed his hand down smoothly, using his other hand to turn the fruit and remove the pit.

"Just like that?" Jack asked breathily. Kathryn looked up to answer, only to realize his face was much closer than it should have been, his black eyes boring into hers.

"Yeah," Kathryn said quietly. "Just like that." She shifted backward to her original spot, well aware of the thick tension hanging in the air like dense fog. She felt the apples of her cheeks blooming, and hoped no one would notice.

"_Anyway,_" Simon cut in, clearly holding back a smile, "then you just scrape out the white sappy stuff with the round part of the blade, and remove the skin."

Her cheeks still tingling, Kathryn followed his example, finally left with a slippery. mango –like fruit.

"And you can just eat this?" she asked. Simon nodded.

Cautiously, Kathryn sliced a piece off, and hesitantly put it into her mouth. She winced as overly-sweet juice reached her taste buds. It tasted rotted and over ripe. Still, her stomach grumbled with hunger, so she sliced off another sliver, her face twisting as she chewed the unpleasant fruit.

"Uh, God, this is awful." she groaned, looking up to see Jack making similar faces as he tried the fruit.

Simon shrugged. "You get used to it. I've had a few already. It's a better option than, you know, starving."

Jack gagged loudly, and spat the chewed up piece in his mouth out onto the sand. "I don't know if I can eat this." he complained.

"You have too." Kathryn choked out, still wincing at the taste. "There's nothing else."

Jack cut off and ate another piece reluctantly. His face twisted. "You know what we need?" he asked once he finally swallowed the orange mass.

"Hmm?"

"Meat." Jack said harshly. "We need some damn meat." His eyes lit up at his own suggestion. Kathryn's own mouth watered slightly as she pictured the hearty dishes of roasted boar and alligator tail that she grew up with back home.

"You can say that again." A deep voice resonated from behind them, and everyone turned to see Roger. He ran a hand through his greasy hair and sat next to Jack. "I've eaten four of those damn fruits, and I swear I'll die if I eat another one."

"Are there any animals to eat here?" Jack asked curiously, his own stomach emitting light growls.

"There's pigs. I've seen the tracks." Roger said shortly. He looked at Simon and curled his lip. "Why aren't _you _working?"

Simon cast his gaze down shyly. Kathryn saw he was intimated by Roger's large, muscular build and cruel eyes.

"He was showing us how to cut the fruit." Kathryn cut in, not wanting to see Roger bully the kind, shy boy.

Roger looked at her as though he hadn't seen her there before. The odd look on his face was a cross between amusement and repulsion. Kathryn felt herself wanting to shrink back behind his gaze, but she stood her ground.

"I don't recall asking you."

"I don't recall needing permission to speak." Kathryn hissed back icily.

He looked at her strangely for a few seconds. "It figures that out of the entire world, we get stuck with the most annoying bitch possible." Roger finally laughed harshly, elbowing Jack. "Right?"

Jack frowned. "Don't talk about her like that." His lips hardened into a line.

Roger gave Jack a funny look. "Whatever." Kathryn set her jaw, and felt annoyance bubbling up inside of her.

The awkward silence was interrupted by Ralph, who emerged again from the forest, dropped yet another pile of the horrible fruits from his arms, and then dropped himself down to sit with the group, next to Kathryn. "Mind if I join the party?" he asked. He was breathing slightly heavily from carrying the load through the forest.

"Be our guest." Kathryn answered, still trying to eat the remaining part of her fruit. Ralph laughed at her disgusted expression.

"Not exactly a delicacy, is it?" he asked. Kathryn pursed her lips and shook her head.

"We need meat, Ralph." Jack said blankly. "I don't know if I can eat one more of these fruits."

Ralph nodded. "I know. We'll have to start hunting soon. But first, I have a proposition for you, Jack."

Jack raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"I want you to go into the forest with me. First we have to make sure that this is even an island to begin with. Then we need to look for resources, like firewood, pig tracks…"

"Why me?" Jack asked shortly.

"Because you're the best suited for that kind of thing." Ralph said evenly. After a few confused looks he admitted, "And because I think you're one of the strongest allies I could have here, and we got off on the wrong foot."

'You could say that again." Jack retorted. He gave Ralph a suspicious look. "But alright, I'll go. Anything that means getting some real food."

Ralph nodded to himself. "Good." He picked up Jack's knife off the sand and handed it to him. "I recommend you bring this." he said. "And you might want to cut off your sleeves and the bottoms of your pants…it's awfully hot."

"Good idea." Jack decided, standing up. "These wet clothes are starting to rub." He took the knife and sawed a line into each sleeve, then ripping them completely off with his hands. Kathryn stopped herself from staring appreciatively as his muscular arms were each revealed. When he was done, and the leftover fabric lay in a heap in the sand, Jack held the knife out to Kathryn playfully.

"Want to cut off a few more inches on that dress?"

Kathryn rolled her eyes and snatched the knife, burying it up to its handle in the sand imperiously.

"What about me?" Roger asked gruffly. Heads turned to look at him.

Ralph looked at him cautiously. Maybe he distrusted the boy's looks as much as Kathryn did. "I suppose you could come too." he said after a few seconds. "But that's all. I don't want to take a whole group into the unknown."

"But what about _me_?" Kathryn asked, annoyed that she was being discounted yet again. And she knew why. It was without a doubt her status as a woman.

"Come on, you don't really want to go into the woods." Ralph reasoned. "Just stay here and see if Simon and Piggy can find you something to do."

Kathryn looked at Jack, who just shrugged in apology. "There might be spiders in there." he added light-heartedly. "You wouldn't want to run into a spider, right?"

"Well I don't want to stay here and sit on my ass either." Kathryn snapped angrily.

"I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile to do." Ralph said soothingly. "And we'll be back in a few hours."

"You _can_ make it a few hours without me, right Kat?" Jack asked jokingly, his dark eyes gleaming humorously.

Kathryn, realizing she wasn't going to be accepted into this expedition anytime soon, rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Fine." she snapped. "I hope you all get attacked by a beast." she added vengefully after a second of thought.

Ralph and Jack laughed, and Roger folded his own arms sourly. "We'll be back soon." Ralph smiled, turning towards the forest again. Jack waved at her overly-sweetly, a goofy grin on his face, and turned to follow Ralph and Roger.

"Wait! Wait! I want to come!" a shrill voice called, cracking with the signs of late puberty. Piggy jogged – or more like stumbled – towards the group of boys. He stopped when he reached them, heaving.

"I w-want to g-go too!"

"Piggy, you can't come." Ralph said quietly.

"Why not?"

"Because –" Ralph began.

"Because you only ran few feet over here and you already can't even breathe." Jack said dryly, raising his dark eyebrows as he cut off Ralph's softer decline.

"But I have a-asthma!" Piggy protested. "Th-that's not fair!"

"You're better suited to stay here and watch over the others." Ralph said kindly. "Maybe you can find Kathryn something to do."

Kathryn shot the blonde a dagger-like look at his suggestion. She refused to be babysat by the overgrown kindergartner, that was for sure.

"But I want to—"

Roger stepped forward. "If you don't stop whining, I'm going to _make_ you stop, git." he growled, his eyes, the same black as Jack's but without the friendly gleam, flashed.

Piggy shriveled under his harsh gaze. 'I-I'll stay here then."

Ralph smiled encouragingly at him, with the support and firmness of a good leader, and laid a hand on the fat boy's shoulder. "Good man."

The group of boys turned away from the dejected boy, slightly sniggering at his misfortune – the way all boys do – and continued into the forest.

Kathryn watched them disappear into the lush leaves with narrowed eyes. What was she supposed to do while they were gone?

She scanned the area, noting the little boys still sleeping, and the older boys – although still younger than her – slicing into those horrid fruits. Who was she supposed to talk to?

"So we're the r-rejects, aren't we?" Piggy asked, bumbling towards her when his eyes caught sight of her and Simon. Kathryn raised her eyebrows, not sure that she wanted to be part of the reject club.

"I suppose so," she said finally, realizing there was no way around it. "They don't know what they're missing." she added.

"I hate feeling useless.' Simon groaned. He tossed the knife down into the sand.

Kathryn nodded in agreement. "But we aren't." she reasoned. "They just think we are."

"I _am_ actually useless." Piggy admitted, his face falling as he spoke. Kathryn felt her stomach twitch with repulsion at his pathetic self-loathing, but also with pity.

"We should do something to prove we're not." Simon suggested.

Kathryn's eyes flew open wider as an idea erupted in her mind. She looked at Piggy happily, admiring the round, goofy glasses propped up on his upturned nose. "I know what we could do."

"What?" both boys asked curiously.

"The boys were talking about building a fire. Let's give them a fire." her eyes shimmered as she spoke, and the boys look at her wondrously, admiring the new life in her.

"But there's no fire wood." Simon said reasonably. "That's what they're out there searching for."

Kathryn cast her gaze around the area. "We could use palm fronds." she suggested. "They're a lot of dead, dried ones." Sure enough, piles of brittle, brown fronds lay in piles in the sand, fallen from the palm trees.

"Hey, littluns!" Kathryn called out, standing up and dusting the sand off her bottom. She shook the young children's shoulders to wake them from their sleep. "Wake up; we have a job to do."

"Littluns…" Piggy murmured. "That's a n-nice name for them."

"That's what my grandma used to call me and my brothers." Kathryn said conversationally, still rousing the drowsy boys.

The boys rubbed their eyes. "What?" they asked together, their voices faint with sleep.

"Collect those big, dead, palm fronds." Kathryn instructed. "We're going to make a big fire."

The littluns perked up at the mention of fire, something that they'd always been curious about, but weren't allowed to ever encounter at private school.

"Okay!" the chorused happily, rushing towards the fronds. Within a few minutes, there was a large pile of palm fronds nestled in a heap.

"That's good." Kathryn decided. "We don't want to burn all of them. Piggy, give me your glasses."

"My specs?" Piggy asked in confusion. Kathryn smiled at his British vocabulary.

"Yes."

Piggy removed them from his face, reluctant to hand them over. He clutched them to his body. "But they're very e-expensive. And if I b-break them then…"

"I promise I won't break them." Kathryn said, smiling sweetly.

Piggy hesitated a second later, but finally decided to trust the pretty girl, and handed her his most prized possession.

"What are you going to do with his specs?" Shy little Simon asked, cocking his head curiously.

"I'm going to start a fire." Kathryn said logically.

"But how?"

"With the sun, obviously." Kathryn said, turning to him. "Haven't you ever done this before?"

The two boys shook their heads.

"Wow. Private school must have sucked." Kathryn commented dryly. "We used to burn up ants back home and melt little plastic army men with glasses and the sun."

Piggy looked at her as if she was evil. "Why would you do that?"

Kathryn shrugged. "I had all brothers. Boys will be boys. Or at least, that's what American boys do as kids."

Simon and Piggy flared their nostrils in disbelief, but stared in awe as Kathryn's dainty hands angled the lenses to direct the sun. Their breaths hitched as a stream of smoke wisped up from one piece of the palm frond.

"That's not enough to start a fire." Piggy said obviously, scrunching up his nose.

"Hush." Kathryn snapped, maneuvering the lens and causing the ray of light to become sharper. Finally, one of the fronds caught fire and it hastily spread. Kathryn jumped backwards, a satisfied smirk on her amazingly still-red lips, and watched the hungry flames burn the papery leaves.

"Woah." Simon said wondrously.

"They wanted a little fire? There's their little fire." Piggy agreed, his proud features revealing that he thought himself at least half-responsible for this accomplishment.

Kathryn dropped to the sand again, far enough away from the fire so it wouldn't be too hot, leisurely leaning backwards. "And that is how you do that, boys." she drawled arrogantly. "I'd like to see Jack come up with that idea. Or Ralph. Or any of them for that matter."

Her stomach clenched. She knew it was useless to get angry. But inside she was so sour at the older boys' mindless rejections towards her that her hands were curling into fists. She'd heard of sexism before, even experienced it a little when she left town, but during her childhood in the Louisiana bayous, she was always just another child, another worker, another person. Ralph's upright refusal to take her with them was a foreign scenario to her. Was she less capable because she was born female? Was she less of a person?

"Stop worrying about them." Simon's soft voice said, interrupting her thoughts. He collapsed into the sand across from her. Piggy, meanwhile, was excitedly waving his hands over the fire's smoke, entranced by the heat and the patterns.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

Simon's sweet, mossy eyes seemed to be reading her mind. "You're mad they wouldn't take you with them." He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. They were just raised differently. Believe it or not, they're just trying to protect you."

Kathryn raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? And why do you think differently than them? Weren't you raised the same way?"

Simon nodded. "Sure I was." he admitted, "But I_ read_, a lot more than those thick rugby heads ever do. So I learn more than them."

Kathryn cracked a smile at his insult towards Jack.

"And I know all about American women," he continued.

"Oh really?"

"I've read about the Wild West cowgirls, and Amelia Earhart, and, uh…" Simon's cheeks colored here, "and Betty Grable. You American women are something else."

Kathryn laughed, well aware of Betty Grable's famous bathing suit photos that revealed a scandalous amount of leg. "I guess you could say that," she said idly, running her fingers through the sand to trace patterns. "I just wish Jack knew it too."

"I'm sure he will soon." Simon reassured her. "I mean, I just saw you make a fire with some specs and dried leaves. He'll find out that you can take care of yourself real fast, won't he?"

"You're telling me." Kathryn sighed, laying all the way back, but so that she could still see Simon. "Hey Simon?" she said after a few silent seconds.

"Yes?"

"Don't you think this is all a little ridiculous?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"All this preparation. Scouting for resources, building fires, tearing clothes…" Kathryn explained. "I mean, we aren't really going to be here for that long, are we?"

Simon studied her quietly. "I think we will be." he said finally. "No one knows where we are."

Kathryn's stomach clenched in fear. That was exactly what she didn't want to hear. "But." she raved, trying more to convince herself, "they'll know where the plane stopped responding! They'll know something went wrong, and when we don't show up, they'll come looking for us! Right?"

Simon shrugged again. "Normally, maybe, but we're in the middle of a war, and might be farther into Nazi territory than we think. The Allies will be plenty mad that a passenger plane got shot down, but they'll be more interested in seeking revenge then finding a bunch of lost school boys. They might just assume we've already died. For all we know, this might even be an undiscovered island."

Kathryn's stomach rolled. Before now she'd pushed this all away – this fear and the feelings of helplessness. The boys hadn't cried, and so she had refused to as well. But now the reality of the situation sank in forcefully. Her eyes welled, but she blinked them away quickly. Would her parents inquire about her whereabouts? Had they even thought about her yet? She hoped they had. But then again, maybe they didn't care where she was, as long as she was far away from Louisiana. As long as she was so far away that she couldn't embarrass the family any further.

Bitterly, she remembered her mother's parting words as she saw her only daughter off on the plane. "Good riddance." She had hissed. She had whispered it to Kathryn's father, probably not intending for Kathryn to hear it, but her daughter's sharp ears had picked up on it anyway, and it had ripped her apart on the inside. If she was such a pest that it was good to be rid of her, why would her parents search for her?

"I don't want to be here." she whispered to herself, hating the pitch in her voice that mirrored a little girl.

Simon fell quiet, wringing his hands between his knees thoughtfully. The tension hung thick in the air, although the squealing little boys, delighted to be so close to fire, didn't notice and continued to shout gleefully. Piggy meanwhile, at last bored with the smoke, ambled over heavily, before plopping himself down on the ground.

"What are you two talking about?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing." Simon said shortly, sensing that the subject was closed.

Piggy frowned. "Okay then." Kathryn scrunched up her nose in disgust at the sweat rolling down the fat boys' body, a product of the fire's heat. Ash lightly streaked his face where the smoke had colored his hands and he'd wiped himself.

"You know what I could use?" Piggy asked. Without waiting for a response, he continued. "Another fruit."

Simon raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Another fruit?" he asked. "But they're disgusting."

"Well, I'm hungry!" Piggy protested. "I've never gone so long without a decent meal."

Kathryn jumped to her feet. "I'll get one for you," she volunteered uncharacteristically. "One second."

She made sure to use the bangs of her golden hair to hide the stubborn wetness growing in her eyes. Her stomach flip-flopped. She hadn't been prepared for Simon's frankness, and the idea that no one was out there to save them terrified her. Could they really survive here? Any of them?

She picked up a fruit hesitantly from the pile, using the back of her hand to wipe away the beginnings of her tears. She straightened up again to walk back towards the two younger boys, her legs shaky with fear now.

_Control yourself. _She hissed to herself. _Don't cry. _These delayed emotions, only just now settling in, made her nauseous and caused her head to swim.

The boys lounging on the sand grew blurry and cloudy in her vision, and the world titled upwards. For a minute she didn't know what had happened, but the rough sand scraping mercilessly against her face hinted that she had somehow fallen.

"Kathryn!" she heard, and she rolled herself over. Simon was running towards her, concern etched on his face. Piggy was still trying to get up. Her stomach pitched and rolled like an animal inside of her, and the small amount of orange fruit she'd eaten earlier was emptied out of her stomach.

She winced in disgust and embarrassment that this had happened again, but was nonetheless thankful to feel Simon's cool hands brush her neck as they lifted her hair. Another roll of nausea enveloped her, and she gagged some more, her now-empty stomach convulsing.

"It's okay, it's okay," Simon said, his shy, soft voice soothing.

Piggy joined them now, his bare feet visible in the corner of her vision. "W-what happened?" he huffed, but there was true caring in his voice.

Simon shook his head as she quaked beneath him. "She just got sick." he said simply. "I don't know why."

Kathryn's instinct told her it was because of her nerves and her newfound fear, much like immediately after the crash when she'd fallen sick, but she was too stressed to tell him that, and instead leaned back on her heels, her face titled upwards towards the sky.

"Maybe she got too hot." Piggy suggested. "It's really hot out, and she was by the fire."

Kathryn shook her head, using Simon to help pull her to her feet. "I'm fine," she croaked, her legs wobbly and her heart racing. The nausea had passed, but she felt disgusting now. "I just need to sit."

The boys nodded and walked her down to the shore, where she could dip her toes into the cool salt water. She breathed heavily for a while, until she had almost returned to normal. She cursed her stomach, which always seemed to be completely willing to upchuck at the drop of a hat, and managed to enjoy the sea breeze ruffling her matted hair.

And she noticed that if she closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the waves, the calls of the birds, and the hiss of the surf, that the island began to seem more like a dream and less like a nightmare.

**xxxxxxxxx**

What did you guys think? :)

The next chapter will kind of backtrack a little so we can see what happened with the boys in the forest, what they encountered and their conversations (that should be fun) but then it'll catch up with this one. Just some points and a few quick questions for you guys:

-I understand that the story is moving slowly, but I'm putting a lot of effort into making this a well-developed story with many chapters, instead of a 10-chapter story. As for the relationships developing slowly, they've only been on the island for like, one whole day, so I doubt that a relationship would have progressed much farther than theirs is now. Are most of you happy with the speed of the overall story, however? If it's a problem, I'm sure I can adjust it.

-I'm working on making Ralph a little less OOC, and I hope you guys caught on to that now that he's more civil. However, I deliberately made his initial attitude in chapter 2 rough and arrogant, because I have much in store for Ralph as far as character development goes, and he has a back-story that prompted that behavior.

-I had a few complaints in my PM's about Jack being such a flirty "loverboy". That's actually the angle I was trying to work at, since a flirt is always a welcome addition in my eyes, as long as it isn't overdone. Is this a problem for anyone else, though? I have to admit I've kind of already fallen for Jack's flirting ;)

-Finally, I'm giving Kathryn more flaws (like her apparent drinking, her slightly arrogant attitude, her unhappiness with how she's being treated as a woman, her judgments of others – especially Piggy, her new fear, her "violent tendencies" and of course, that dark big secret) and I think she's far from Mary-Sue-ish now. However, if you think she still is, just holler and I'll try and think up something else to throw into the bunch.

**To everyone who reviewed the pro/con lists: **Thank you a million times over! Those detailed reviews keep me going and really influence my writing, which I love, because I know it's helping to develop me as a writer. Please don't think that you're inconveniencing me by writing huge pro/con reviews when there is already a ton, because I just eat them up happily :) I have absolutely no objections to them – ever – and I'd love it if you guys continued, and some new people began reviewing as well! Love you all~

Thanks for reading, and please **REVIEW!** I swear, those are the only things that keep me motivated to write!

**-I love, love, love critiques since it improves me as a writer, but please don't flame. (a nice pro/con list would be good :p) -**


End file.
